Senators blanked on Boxing Day

The Belleville Senators’ run of positive results on Boxing Day in Toronto came to an end on Thursday, thanks to Dennis Hildeby’s solid performance in the Marlies’ net. The 6’7” Swede stopped all 31 shots the Senators sent his way, leading to a 3-0 Belleville defeat in the Boxing Day Classic.

The loss drops Belleville’s record on the season to 13-8-0-4 and 4-2-0-0 on Boxing Day.

Mads Sogaard had been strong throughout the game, despite the result, allowing one Marlies goal in each period. Alex Steeves scored in the first on a power play one-timer, Jacob Quillan capitalized on a goalmouth scramble in the second period, and Fraser Minten found the empty net in the third.

The Senators defeat certainly didn’t lack effort, outshooting their opponents 31-26. Zack MacEwen had seven shots in the game, while Matthew Highmore and Angus Crookshank each had five.

The Sens and Marlies will see each other again in just a couple of days, when Toronto visits Belleville on Saturday, December 28, at CAA Arena.

You can see the complete box score by clicking here.

Game highlights can be seen here.

Fast Facts:

#9 Angus Crookshank had five shots on net
#15 Matthew Highmore had five shots on net
#17 Zack MacEwen had a game-high seven shots on net
#21 Max Guenette played in his 203rd game for Belleville, making him the club’s all-time leader in games played by a defenceman
#40 Mads Sogaard stopped 24 of the 25 shots he faced
The Senators were 0/8 on the Lifestyle Home Products Power Play and 4/5 on the View Tech Window and Door Penalty Kill

Belleville Sens Head Coach Dave Bell on the result:

“I don’t think you deserve much when you get that many power plays and go 0-for. I liked our five-on-five game, but obviously there’s a massive concern with our man-advantage unit right now. But we were missing traffic and guys in and around the net for those second or third chances. He made some big saves, and he’s a good goalie, but if you take away his eyes and push him back on the goalline, you make it more difficult for him and we didn’t do that.

Belleville Sens Head Coach Dave Bell on areas of growth for his team despite some recent defeats:

“There are moments, but spurts don’t count. You need consistency. Good teams are consistent, good teams if they’re having a bad night they find a way to win a game 2-1, or 5-4, and we have to figure that out. I don’t think our record the last five or six games is good enough, we’re too good of a team to have that record. So, we’ve got some work to do.”

Belleville Sens Head Coach Dave Bell on Round 5 of the Battle of Ontario coming up Saturday at CAA Arena:

“Any time you can play a team you just lost to in our division and try to get the points back, it’s huge. So, that’s going to be a big game.”